Re: your mail

[Cecil Wright <nocw1@nsh.library.ns.ca>]

> Lest Noah or others bash me as too anti-union, I will say I agree with this comment Ray Allen made: 
> "It's not like he put a gun to anyone's head and said give me this much money. That's what they agreed to pay him and that's definitely what they thought he was worth." 
> In theory, the owners should have the sack to tell players where to stuff their exorbitant salary demands, as Herb Kohl said to Glenn Robinson a few years ago. But when your deep-pocketed competitors are able & willing to shell out exorbiatnt sums, it makes it tougher for an owner to stick to his guns and risk losing his fan base because he can't field a competitive team.
> 
I am not about to bash Peter or anyone else, but if the owners are not 
all on the same page now, they won't be later either.  IMHO this all 
started with the Larry Johnson signing, not the Garnett contract.  I 
don't blame the players for getting whatever they can get from the 
owners.  It is THEIR lunacy which has led to the impasse.  If the owners 
had not agreed to these outrageous sums of money in the first place, 
things would not be so out of control now.  Yes the players are greedy!  
But nobody forces the owners to bow to silly overinflated requests by 
these agents.  They do it for the very reason which Peter alludes to in 
his last paragraph; if they don't pay, one of their competitors will.

Cecil